These snails are my babies. They are the ones Travis gave me from his
Aquababies tank, and they're the first snails I got to watch grow up
from the very beginning. They're not nearly as interesting to watch
as the Physa Acuta or the Malaysian Trumpet Snails behavior-wise. But
they are absolutely gorgeous. I have five large ones and countless
babies. Some of the second generation babies' shells are starting to
get color, which is exciting! These snails are the largest in my
tank, at about 3/4 inch diameter as I write this. They are round, and
have spirals that look like ram's horns (natch). They have big beefy
pink bodies with little white speckles on them, and their antennae are
nice and long. They are the mastiffs of snails in my tank, if you
will.
| I bought one of my larger ones from a fish store that thought I
was crazy for 50 cents. He is kind of golden colored (iridescent gold
with spots). It is
interesting because you can see the difference in his shell from when
he was living in the fish store and when he was living in my tank: now
he looks more red than golden. His name is Hugo. The rest remain
unnamed.
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| Hugo |
 Unfortunately, my ramshorns' shells have deteriorated because of the
softness of the water in my area (you can see this happening a little
at the center of the shell on the snail in this picture). But they are still gorgeous!
- Behavior:
- For the most part these snails just go around and graze on algae and
other random crap in the tank. Occasionally they'll go to the surface
and float around. When my elodea plants come unrooted, it appears
that they like to chew/suck/hang around on the base of the plant,
where it used to be in the gravel. From time to time, I see them
trying to float to the surface like the Physa Acuta but they always
fail because they're too big and clumsy and not very aerodynamic.
Because they're so big, I often see little physa hitching rides on
their shells.
- Sex:
- Of my big ramshorns, 4 are reddish colored and one has a strange
milky-whitish sheen to its shell. It has always looked like this. I
kind of wonder if it is maybe a different sex from the other four
snails. I was under the impression that these snails were
hermaphroditic,
though. But whenever I see these snails mating, the white one is
always involved. Previous to today, when I see these snails mating,
it's rather uninteresting. They just look like they're kinda stuck to
each other for a few hours. But today I came home and two of them
were in the most bizarre embrace. The white one had some huge organ
sticking out of its shell. It was shaped sort of roundish-tubular, with a smaller
tube coming out of the top and a little hole towards the bottom, out
of which a yellow-orange pointy thing would occasionally poke out of.
I could see this pointy thing inside the organ, through the outside
tissue. Occasionally this whole thing would retract into the shell of
the snail. The other had some sort of long tubular thing that was
attatched to the side of its foot. This tube was extending outwards
to the other snail, and was kind of wrapped around its foot/head, so
that one of its antennae was obscured/squished. I assumed it was
sticking something inside the other snail's shell too, although I
couldn't really see. After a while, the smaller tube on the white
one's weird organ thing had extended at least twice as long and
appeared to be affixed (like GLUED) to the other snail's shell. The
little orange yellow pointy thing continues to poke in and out. If I
recall correctly, I got a glimpse of a similar organ on the other
snail too. Because of this, I think that both snails have extended
the same organ at each other. The mystery is that those organs don't
seem to be directed at anything resembling a place to be
fertilized... but until I find out otherwise I'm going to assume that
what they're doing is some sort of sex thing. Very bizarre. Maybe my
snails are actually aliens. That's sure what it looked like. I drew
pictures of what was going on, and hopefully I'll get them scanned at
some point.
- Growing Up:
- When these snails are first born, they are tiny and pinkish
clear. You can see all their internal organs and a big bubble through their shell.
 |
| baby
ramshorn |
Their shell is not shaped like the adults' shells; it is shaped sort
of like a ball with one flat side. You can kind of see the markings
of a spiral, but the shell isn't shaped this way at all yet.
Eventually, this shape will give way to a smaller, fatter version of
what adult snails' shells look like. I'd give a time frame but it's
difficult to keep track of one snail as it grows, as there are so many
baby snails and more are born almost each day! The shell gets darker
and darker, changing from a light pink to a peach to a medium orange.
Occasionally the shell will have a iridescent gold-ish sheen. The
coloring looks kind of spotted for a while, until the shell's color
fills in all the way. Sometimes the color only fills in on one side
for a while. Meanwhile, the body and antennae continue to
grow and darken from a light peach to a nice dark pink to brown with
white speckles on the surface. Eventually the snail will look like
the lovely specimen in the photo at the top of the page. I don't know how large they get,
as mine continue to grow larger and more marvelous each day.
Stats:
- Size: 3/4" diameter max, right now
- Color: Dark brick red; milky white; translucent peach (juveniles);
iridescent gold (juveniles)
- Shell: round, shaped like a ram's horn.
- Body: muscular, pinkish with white speckles on the surface.
- Eggs: laid on the underside of leaves or on the side of the glass,
generally in one of the joints (I have a hex tank). The clusters are
smaller than those of the Physa Acuta, and are more flat. They are
kind of yellowish. The structure of the cluster is rigid, rather than
gelatinous like the Physa. Also, they are only one egg high, and are
spread out, rather than being in a ball-like formation.
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Unfortunately, my ramshorns' shells have deteriorated because of the
softness of the water in my area (you can see this happening a little
at the center of the shell on the snail in this picture). But they are still gorgeous!
